Well. That'll teach me to complain about nice, if slightly bizarre, dreams.

Last night I dreamed that I wasn't pregnant any more. (There was no miscarriage, mind you - I just sort of turned around and it was like a switch going off. Bam. Not pregnant.) I was still in shock, and all our friends were trying to be comforting but failing miserably because it was so weird and awkward, and then one of them said, "Well, you didn't want it enough, I guess," and walked off.

Nice.

Can we go back to dreams about people I barely know giving me presents?

My dad came over last night for a little less than an hour to bring his ladder and climb up into our attic access and take measurements.

Actually, I think Matt did the actual measuring. I kept my butt planted firmly downstairs.

It turns out that not only did our builder run wiring into the attic, but they actually went ahead and installed a light socket, so that'll make things easier. Our access panel is a little on the small side, so Dad isn't sure if we can get a folding ladder that will fit, or if we'll just have to buy a stepladder and a better cover.

Anyway, it looks like the attic will be ready for use in three or four more visits - one visit to go to Lowes and buy the plywood, another visit to cut it into pieces that will fit through the access panel, and then one or two visits to get the wood up there and nail it down. That's assuming Dad continues to come on weeknights; if we can get him here on a weekend, it could probably all be done in a day or so.

I had to laugh when he asked me how much floor space I wanted up there. "Enough to store the Christmas decorations and some other crap." How should I know? Though it seems to me it would be easier to lay down too much flooring now, and not use it, than to have to lay more later.

Either way, it will be nice to have a place to stuff all of our... stuff. Christmas decorations (and other holidays, too, for that matter). All the empty boxes that we don't want to throw out but aren't using. Maybe I'll pack away a bunch of the books that I don't want to get rid of but never read any more. Once I have to move into maternity clothes, I can put my regular clothes up there to make room for them, and...

Obviously, there are things that can't go up there. Computer gear and videotapes would melt in the summer heat. But once we clear out a lot of the other stuff, there will be more room in the main part of the house for that stuff.

And we did in fact, last weekend, finally clear out the Stuff corner in the bedroom, and Matt's ordered two new bookcases to go over there. Which is good, because our collection of comic paperbacks is already overflowing the shelves we dedicated to them.

And my next chore is to go through all the bookshelves and pull out the stuff I'm willing to get rid of and take to the used bookstore - and hopefully convince Matt to add to that stack, too. There's already a fairly impressive stack, actually; the real chore is to clear out the bookshelves and then actually get the books out of the house.

Which will, I hope, gird my loins (so to speak) for the enormous battle that I've been putting off for something like two years: Packing up all my individual-issue comics, and whatever individuals Matt is willing to part with, and carting them down to the Literacy Foundation.

Wish me luck.

--Liz